@G2x - I completely agree. Right now lots of our spreading is through word of mouth (or shares on the Internet).

Our social media presence is pretty small right now but the easiest is if you are on Facebook/Twitter liking and sharing our content. If you click on the "Link to Us" banner you will get your referral link so you can get some incentives to have new people sign up

As a veteran member of Icepets and one of the top referrers, I have a couple ideas...

STEP 1: REDESIGN WITH NEW USERS IN MINDA lot of people I have talked to are quickly put off by the layout. It's hard to argue that it feels dated and the design elements are far from impressive. I have really high hopes that the layout update will bring in troves of new users. Feel free to argue with me, but I think the hallmarks of this site is the community and the artwork. I'm in love with so much of the art here, so it's always frustrating that our layout thems usually only include one or two pet/item icons!! I think it would be worth considering commissioning a layout theme of original artwork--not just preexisting item art photoshopped behind a pattern. Not only is this a new user's first impression of the site, but it reenforces a theme on every page. That theme should be uniqueness and quality. Maybe art of different icepets having a snowball fight? (it sucks bexxy doesn't do pet art anymore..)

STEP 2: ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN Once the update happens, it will be a pivotal moment to launch an advertising campaign. It will require an investment on Judda's part, which I know isn't ideal, but I think even a month or two of advertising could have a huge impact if we're touting a re-designed site. There was an early period where the site was advertised online many years ago, and it certainly worked. That was before the era of easy Facebook advertising, which I think now has the potential to be even cheaper and more effective. It's a relatively small investment that would return quickly.

STEP 3: REFERRAL CONTESTOnce we have an influx of users from the ads, I would recommend having another referral contest. This would require more mod work to ensure people aren't creating multis, but it is a very cheap and VERY effective way to generate online buzz. During the 2012 referral contests, we had 30-40 players online at any given time almost the entire year. Of course you could skip the advertising and do this first, but it would not be nearly as effective. In the last several years, I have noticed the userbase "settle down". We simply don't have the same diverse reach into other online communities we used to. That's why I think advertising for a little bit first could be extremely helpful to create some pathways with other potential communities.

But going back to my first point, this really isn't a great option until the layout update happens. Doing a contest now might actually end up alienating people who would be interested in joining post-update.

I am completely on board with more items added to the referral shop. xD The main reason I don't back a tier method (unless it gets added in combination with the store)...you can only get the item once. I'd like to have the option to buy something from a shop a couple times if I want more than one.

I can understand the desire to wait for any huge advertising boost until the new layout is done since it can cost money to run adds (although free speech is always handy on social media platforms).

I personally don't have many friends who play these kinds of sites so I more or less bug family when I can get them to follow along, ha.

There's a Youtuber by the name of Pet Simmer Julie that has a big influence over what pet sim games her viewers watch. If we could get her to play Ice Pets, even just to try it out, then I bet some of her viewers would hop on here.